This is a photo I took back in 2013, in Paris. It was the first time I visited Paris, I took this photo with my good old Fujifilm X100, while someone in the metro was trying to stop me from taking photos.
I remembered very clearly that in my first visit, I didn’t really like Paris. There were awful smells everywhere. The metro was dark, and not clean at all. I was always super nervous when I was on the street, paying most of my attention to my wallet and backpack, because people said that Asian tourist is pickpockets’ favorite target.
Fast forward to 2024, here I am, in Paris again. After 15 years of working as a software engineer, I came to Paris again to study photography, and seek for the opportunity to be a professional photographer. To be honest, I feel a little bit guilty about this, because there are already too many photographers in this world, and trust me, I also hate that. Instagram, Flickr, Facebook… these social media platforms created a huge mess of cliché photographs and abundant photographers. Does the world really need another photographer?What makes me unique and different from others? This is the question I want to find the answer in Paris.
Interestingly enough, Paris might be a dream place to learn art and photography, but it’s also a nightmare for people like street photography. In the metro, although everyone is doing it, few people know that you actually need to apply for a permission in order to take photos. On the street, Parisian gets offended quite easily if you take photos of them without asking.
“Défense de photographer” is the French phrase for “No Photography”. I use this as the tagline of my website not to against photography, but to remind myself that I’m truly lucky to be able to use this media to express my feeling and thoughts to this world, but do not take it for granted.
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